Big Sky or Fort Collins?

Neither is a place to swim, and both are about as far from the sea as you can get. What differs is the water. In Big Sky it means a cold, rocky river, a few small ponds for a quick dip, or the hotel pool.

Fort Collins at least offers a proper lake afternoon in July and August. Horsetooth Reservoir has a designated swim beach and coves busy with paddleboards and boats.

Fort Collins eats and drinks better, mostly because of the beer. Long-established breweries on the north side of Old Town run tours, and smaller taprooms with food trucks outside are spread across the city. Summer farmers' markets bring Colorado peaches and honey into town.

Big Sky's food is solid mountain fare, such as bison, elk, trout and big pre-ski breakfasts, in the lodges and village restaurants. The range is narrow, prices are steep and some kitchens close between seasons. Serious eaters drive out from both, to Bozeman and Denver respectively.

Neither city is a sightseeing destination, but Fort Collins at least gives you a day's worth. Its red-brick and sandstone Old Town is a pleasant nineteenth-century centre to stroll, and you can add the Museum of Discovery, the Victorian Avery House and the university's art museum.

Big Sky is a resort built from the 1970s onwards. Apart from the log cabins of the Crail Ranch homestead in Meadow Village, it is all timber lodges and condos.

Fort Collins has a real night out, though a casual one. Students fill the pubs, sports bars and rooftop patios around the Old Town square at weekends, and there are a few dance clubs. Big Sky's evening peaks at teatime, with skiers in boots on the sunny decks at the lift base. After dinner a few Town Center taverns and canyon saloons stay open a while, and most people head to bed early for the first lift.

Both are excellent outdoor bases, but Big Sky is wilder and bigger. Lone Peak towers over one of North America's largest ski areas. Summer trails lead into the Spanish Peaks and Lee Metcalf Wilderness, and Yellowstone's geysers, bison and wolves are about an hour away.

Fort Collins wins on convenience. Horsetooth Mountain and Lory State Park start just west of town, the protected Cache la Poudre canyon has rafting and fishing, and paved river trails run through the city itself. Rocky Mountain National Park is an hour and a half off. For skiing, though, it offers only snowshoe and cross-country trails, not lifts.

From Fort Collins there is more variety within reach. You can browse Pearl Street in Boulder beneath the Flatirons, spend a day in Denver's big museums, visit mining-era Golden, or cross into Wyoming for Cheyenne's frontier museum and capitol.

Outings from Big Sky are mostly into the landscape. Bozeman, an hour away, has the dinosaur fossils of the Museum of the Rockies. The boardwalks of gold-rush Virginia City are a longer drive.

Both suit children well, in different ways. Big Sky is an active mountain vacation, with ski school and gentle slopes in winter, and zip lines, climbing walls, horse riding and bison-spotting in Yellowstone in summer. Small children can tire at first at around 2,300m, and there is nothing to do indoors on a wet day.

Fort Collins is gentler and more varied. Families can visit the hands-on Museum of Discovery with its dome theatre, meet animals at the city farm in Lee Martinez Park, cycle the flat river paths or spend a lake day at Horsetooth. For a zoo or theme park, both mean a long drive.

Fort Collins is easier to move around without a car. Old Town is compact and flat, a rapid-bus line runs north to south, and protected lanes, bike-share and off-street trails make cycling the natural way between breweries, campus and parks.

Big Sky is strung out over about 15km of road. A free bus links the villages, and slopeside lodgings let you ski to the lift. Bozeman airport, Yellowstone and anything beyond the resort need a shuttle or hire car, and the canyon road needs care in winter.

Neither is a shopping destination, but Fort Collins gives you an afternoon of browsing. Old Town has independent boutiques, bookshops, vintage clothing and Colorado-made gifts, and there is a regional mall nearby. Big Sky's shops are for ski gloves, fly rods and Western-style clothes, plus galleries of wildlife art.

The gap in cost is wide. Big Sky is one of the most expensive stays in the American West. Slopeside lodging, lift passes, ski school, guided fishing and resort meals all add up, and summer or a bed down the canyon only softens it.

Fort Collins is mid-priced for the United States. It has plenty of chain hotels and reasonable taprooms, and the trails and Old Town are free. The main extra cost is a hire car, and rooms jump on graduation and football weekends.

Fort Collins has a steadier stage life. The Lincoln Center brings touring Broadway, dance and the local symphony, and the university's arts centre adds opera and theatre in term time. Old Town bar stages host bluegrass and indie bands.

Big Sky's programme is seasonal. A small arts centre in Meadow Village has winter concerts and theatre, and summer brings free lawn concerts and a short classical festival. Between seasons there is little to see.

Big Sky is the better place to unwind. The big lodges have full spas and massages for sore ski legs, there is a hot tub on almost every deck, and the nights are dark, quiet and full of stars. Natural hot springs are about an hour away towards Bozeman.

Fort Collins has ordinary day spas and yoga studios, and the nearest mineral soak is nearly two hours away. Its calm comes instead from shaded river paths and easy, sunny days.